GOP's post-election challenges, what's wrong with the Indy, and more

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'Wouldn't wanna be ya'

Next month will be filled with slicing and dicing election data, trying to figure out why the Democrats lost.

We lost because our candidates received fewer votes than the other candidates.

We lost because the messages didn't move people. The story of banning birth control didn't do it. Outside dark money didn't do it. Nor fear of water sources being contaminated by fracking. We weren't concerned enough to vote.

This is my conclusion: Cory Gardner has to figure out how to support federal personhood without admitting it exists. He has to figure out how to ban birth control without women noticing. He has to figure out how to create jobs through the Keystone Pipeline and convince the Lakota it is in their best interest to have it running through their lands. The NRA has to figure out why we took back the two seats they hijacked in the recall. That didn't play out the way they planned.

The Republicans have to figure out how to keep the exorcist Klingenschmitt out of national news or be blamed for the loss of young people and large employers when he embarrasses us.

So good luck Republicans. Everything is in place to implement their agenda. If they don't do it in two years they fail and Dems win in 2016. If they do implement their agenda they can't hide the consequences and the Democrats will win in 2016. Either way ... see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya.

— Carolyn Cathey

Colorado Springs

Going downhill

I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with the Independent. It is still very good at dispensing information (what a newspaper is supposed to do) about politics, live music and the ahhts scene. In fact, if I close my eyes I think I'm in Paris!

When I open them again, I see litter, trash, refuse, garbage, junk, debris, potholes and cigarette butts, with some mountains in the background, if the sky is not overcast. And, of course, it's hard to see past the advertising and tacky logos on everything from bus benches to supermarket carts.

Personally, I have never been able to tolerate reading more than two sentences written by that smug, loathsome, contemptuous Advice Goddess; and I wish you would eighty-six the cab driver's column! Even though the guy is capable of writing, his stuff is about as pathetic and depressing to read as The Jerry Springer Show is to watch, and he's darned fortunate not to have yet been beaten and robbed at gunpoint by the pitiful drunks and outcasts he ferries around.

Could it be that Rich Tosches contributed so much by lampooning everything about this silly burg, that his humor actually became an antidote to the mundane? Laughter is more appreciated than pathos and bathos.

And what happened to the Freethinkers column?

I guess I should realize that beggars can't be choosers when it comes to a free paper — 'cause look at the alternative, the Gazette!

— Bernadette Young

Colorado Springs

Editor's note: Freethought Views, a paid supplement whose content is provided by Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, has been running about once a month. When it is supplied, we print it.

Victimizing Lamborn

Our Constitution depends on informed American voters with access to honest, reliable and complete information. Yet many generals have lied to us on behalf of our presidents and have tolerated lies by our presidents, including "no boots on the ground" in Syria.

Does this mean that the CIA, our "detached" special forces and U.S. "contractors" in Syria are now wearing sneakers instead of combat boots? Our Vietnam War began with similar American "advisers" whom President Kennedy assured us "are not combat troops in the generally understood sense of the word."

Congressman Doug Lamborn was pilloried for publicly asking why generals don't tell the American people the facts that they privately reveal to him but refuse to also share with the American people.

Risking their careers by exposing, contradicting or refusing to parrot presidential lies requires a moral courage that many generals lack. They hide in "old boy" networks and behind security classifications mainly designed to conceal the incompetence, chicanery and cronyism of our presidents and of our generals.

Of course, publicly exposing any such incompetence, lie or payoff would damage their reputations and, thereby, damage the "morale" of our troops and of the American people. To protect "morale," such mistakes, deceit and corruption are swept under a highly classified "national security" carpet — e.g., Saddam's "link" to Al Qaeda.

During 'Nam, as a low-level go-fer in top-secret-plus vaults, I read and analyzed factual intelligence while marveling at the lies which our generals condoned, encouraged and told at the Five O'Clock Follies in Saigon and in Washington, D.C., "news" briefings.

Now Lamborn is attacked for courageously reminding us that this problem still exists.

— Ralph B. Palmer

U.S. Air Force Academy, 1967

Money better spent

Just prior to our recent election I was very interested to read in the Independent about the huge budgets of the varying campaigns. Millions of dollars were spent to overwhelm our mailboxes, televisions and radios, and now the elections are over, all the campaign dollars are spent.

What I've got on my mind now is those non-governmental agencies that work on comparatively meager budgets to care for our community. As a community we elected to donate over $2 million to local government to spend on parks, yet last year the Indy Give! campaign raised about half that for dozens of local nonprofits.

Let's step it up, Colorado Springs. There are some amazing organizations caring for our poor, our neglected, our children, providing medical services, housing and education. Indy Give! introduces us to those who are the hands and feet and invites us to be a part.

If "vote yes" and "vote no," we were working with millions over the past two months. Can't we as a community invest a little more in those organizations committed to bettering this city all year long? Let's blow up the Indy Give! campaign this year!